To Japan with Shazni

One of my photographer friend, Shazni had a solo journey last winter to the land of the "Land of the Rising Sun". Not the first time that he travelled solo, but as far as I knew this was the first time that he published photographs from such trips.

This time around the photos came in a nice little package. He published a book called "A Little Bit of Japan". And I got it delivered to my apartment this afternoon.

I got it personally autographed. It may be worth millions in the future!Plus a postcard from JapanIt was better than expected in terms of content and quality. The curation was smooth and the photos flowed from one page to the next. It was not the thickest of book but for a first effort, it made you wonder what he would come up next. I think he could do with having a show of his prints in a gallery in the future. I certainly am looking forward to that.

How do get hold of one. At the moment, you would have to contact him directly through this link. Email him on shaznizainal@gmail.com if you want to get hold of him.

Sunday Morning at Kiara Park

The Max Family had been active over the years and every few months, they would have events targeting new CML patients. This time around they decided to do in an informal setting.

I was asked to join them for a Sunday morning "walk" at Kiara Park, near Taman Tun. The target was mainly those recently diagnosed with CML as an introduction to support group as well as disseminating information about their disease and treatment.

A bit of taichi to start the day offLush greenery

We started off early at around 7.30, but it was clearly not early enough. The park was already full at the time I arrived and getting a parking slot was a challenge. I ended up finding a spot 10 minutes away from the park, which was an exercise on its own.

The meet was very well organised. We were divided into three groups with me taking the first Malay group. After a 20 minutes walk around the busy park, we found a shaded space to sit and started the proceeding.

And then the real work begin ...

My group was further divided into two, ending up with around 15. It was an open discussion although they were rather timid at the start. By the end, the floodgates opened and it was a challenge to get away. I had to do my ward round by 10!

The format itself was good, although I wished that the parking would be easier. We did cover a lot during the session and hopefully the patients would get some benefit from the session. The park itself was great, although crowded on a Sunday morning.

I'll be Gentle

I used to examine regularly during my days in UM. Nowadays, the opportunity came only once or twice a year. I kinda missed it. So, when UKM invited me to examine today a couple of months back, I leapt to the idea and cancelled my schedule for today, although I still had to do rounds later today.

I arrived early as usual to beat the traffic, had breakfast at the cafeteria and just chill out for the morning. It was a surprise that the hospital was already buzzing at 7.30 in the morning, the car park almost full, despite having a designated area to leave my car.

But unfortunately the parking lot was already packed when I arrivedThe stage was setThe candidates didn't look too terrified when they posed for a picture with the faculty before the start ....I was still waiting for my candidate to present while catching up with the other examiners who used to be my colleague, marvelling at how spacious the medical department at UKM was.

Friday Night Outing

Irfan had one of his classmate staying over for a sleep-over. On Friday the 13th of May! It just can't get any spookier than that.

They had been all excited all afternoon as his friend came along straight from school. We took them out for dinner at Bubba Gump at The Curve and the trip ended up with them picking up a bunch of junk food as they planned to stay up all night playing games.

After running around for a bit .... I could hear them snoring away at 10.30 am! And they woke up early the next morning wondering what happened the night before. I guess all the excitement has used up their energy .....

Idlan's New Desk

After a 3 day delay, Idlan finally got his desk. Parked right by his window, it certainly looked nice. The lights was great as well.

Now, all I needed to do would be to convince him to start studying. UPSR was only 4 months off ....